Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my questions are for the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment. I am sure the new Minister is aware that schools in Yellowknife are aging and maintenance costs are increasing. Most recently, YK1 has been forced to make an emergency purchase of a boiler at Mildred Hall School in my constituency, at a cost of $90,000, nine-zero thousand dollars.
Trustees say that money spent on the boiler will take money away from education. My first question is: what help can ECE give YK1 to help pay for the new boiler? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member. Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Unlike most jurisdictions in the Northwest Territories, most communities, the school infrastructure of YK1 is owned by YK1, for the most part. As such, it is not the GNWT that provides maintenance; it is actually YK1. The GNWT does provide a maintenance budget. I believe it is $1.4 million annually to YK1 to perform this type of maintenance.
Sometimes, when ECE has extra money in its budget, in its capital budget, it will provide that to cover some of these costs, but at this time ECE doesn't have that extra money in its capital budget and the YK1 actually has a surplus in its capital planning budget, so the money can be taken out of there as opposed to out of money that could be used for education.
Can the Minister tell us how much the surplus is at YK1?
The surplus at YK1, according to the 2018-2019 financial statements, the total operating surplus, is 1.7 million, and that includes $900,000 in the capital fund reserve.
That answer surprises me because I thought that, during the 18th Assembly, the department had rolled back on the total amount of surpluses that school boards were able to keep. I am sure the Minister has given me accurate information, but it is certainly much bigger than I expected it to be.
Onto the question of the aging schools, all of the schools in Yellowknife, except for Allain St-Cyr and the re-built St. Joe's, are aging. What is the long-term plan of the Department to assist the board with maintenance and replacement of their schools?
Even though YK1 owns the infrastructure, the GNWT is responsible for new schools and major retrofits, so, if there is something that can't be covered with the $900,000 capital surplus, like a brand new school, that is what the GNWT covers.
Thank you, Minister. Member for Yellowknife Centre.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the answer from the Minister. The fact is, though, that maintenance costs are increasing at YK1 because of the age of their schools. Not only do they have the boiler problem at Mildred Hall, they are also of course repairing the roof at William McDonald. I am wondering whether the Minister is going to review the maintenance budget given to YK1 to take into account their aging infrastructure. Thank you.
No, I am brand new in the job, and I plan on reviewing all the budgets that ECE has, to make sure that we are doing things properly.
ECE and YK1 have also been in talks about maintenance plans. The Department has offered to assist YK1. You know, we have the Department of Infrastructure here that specializes in this kind of stuff, and so the GNWT is offering assistance to help develop a maintenance plan so that some of these maintenance costs can be dealt with in a more timely fashion perhaps, or at least there could be a plan in place to avoid some of these emergency expenditures like the boiler . Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
